Bill Start

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AJR 17, as introduced, Low.
Impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

This measure would urge President Donald J. Trump to resign for the good of the country and to avoid the divisiveness of impeachment and would urge the United States Congress to impeach President Donald J. Trump if he does not resign.

Digest Key

Fiscal Committee:
NO

Bill Text

WHEREAS, Clause 8 of Section 9 of Article I of the United States Constitution, also known as the Foreign Emoluments Clause, provides in part that “no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States], shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State”; and

WHEREAS, The Foreign Emoluments Clause was intended to protect officers of the United States from undue influence by foreign governments; and

WHEREAS, Clause 7 of Section 1 of Article II of the United States Constitution, also referred to as the Domestic Emoluments Clause, provides that “The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them”; and

WHEREAS, Donald J. Trump has been President of the United States since January 20, 2017; and

WHEREAS, While Donald J. Trump announced at a news conference on January 11, 2017, that he was turning over the leadership and management of the Trump Organization to his sons and a long-time Trump Organization executive, President Donald J. Trump has not divested himself of his ownership in the Trump Organization, nor has he placed his assets in a blind trust; and

WHEREAS, The Director of the United States Office of Government Ethics, an independent federal agency whose mission is to “provide overall leadership and oversight of the executive branch ethics program designed to prevent and resolve conflicts of interest,” has criticized the President’s plan for avoiding conflicts of interest as inadequate, and has said that President Donald J. Trump’s pledge to “[step] back from running his business is meaningless from a conflict-of-interest perspective”; and

WHEREAS, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, whose chair and vice chair of the board of directors are Norman L. Eisen and Richard W. Painter, who led the administration’s ethics policies under President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush, respectively, has filed a federal lawsuit against President Donald J. Trump alleging that President Donald J. Trump’s “business interests are creating countless conflicts of interest, as well as unprecedented influence by foreign governments”; and

WHEREAS, That federal lawsuit alleges that President Donald J. Trump’s business interests “have resulted and will further result in numerous violations of … the ‘Foreign Emoluments Clause,’” and “also likely cause [President Trump] to run afoul of … the ‘Domestic Emoluments Clause’”; and

WHEREAS, President Donald J. Trump’s firing of James Comey from his position as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) while the FBI was investigating the ties between Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia may amount to obstruction of justice; and

WHEREAS, During a meeting at the White House on May 10, 2017, President Donald J. Trump appears to have leaked highly classified information to Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States Sergey Kislyak; and

WHEREAS, Section 4 of Article II of the United States Constitution provides, that “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors”; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature of the State of California urges President Donald J. Trump to resign for the good of the country and to avoid the divisiveness of impeachment; and be it further

Resolved, That if President Donald J. Trump does not resign, the Legislature of the State of California urges the United States Congress to impeach President Donald J. Trump; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Minority Leader of the United States Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.